AKA 10 Times personal brand photography will come in useful
You may have heard the terms ‘Brand Photography’ or ‘Personal Branding Photography’ but not know what they are. I mean, how does it differ from the headshot on your website? And what are personal branding photos used for?
What is (Personal) Brand Photography?
Branding photography is all about creating a portfolio of professional images to bring your brand to life. They communicate who you are & what you enabling you to connect with your customers & potential clients.
A headshot is one photo to identify you. Branding photography delves deeper into your brand story & can include photos of you, your team, your services, processes, products & environment. Brand photos are carefully styled & crafted to show the people behind the business as well as the service or product. Essentially everything that makes your business unique.
Brand photography works with & compliments your brand personality through the use of colour, tone, style & more. It helps to create a consistent visual identity across all of your business & marketing collateral. From social media to your website to print, building familiarity & a recognisable brand.
What photos are taken in a branding photoshoot?
Every business is unique & when it comes to photography there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Each shoot is tailored to the need of the individual.
Let’s take a look at the kind of photos taken in a personal branding shoot & what they are used for.
A branding photoshoot may include some of the following;
- Relaxed lifestyle portraits capturing your personality & characteristics.
- Informal photos of you, as the business owner, your team, their relationships & interactions.
- Images of you at work, showing what you do & how you do it.
- Behind-the-scenes photos. We’re all inherently nosey & love to see what goes on behind closed doors!
- Clients & customers engaging with your products & services.
- Environmental photos of where you work; the office, studio, workshop, garden, or kitchen.
- A selection of creative images representing your product or service.
- Editorial images for blog posts & social media.
I work on the basis of creating images that show who you are, what you do, how you do it, where you do it & why you do it.
What are personal branding photos used for?
You may be wondering where you will use all these photos. Here are a few ideas for how to use your branding photos.
1. Website
The photos on your website are often the first thing a potential new client will see about you. Your website is where people go to find out about your business before they’ve even connected with you.
Imagine an about page of beautifully curated personalised photos telling your brand story. Engaging with your clients & customers. Product photos that fit with your visual identity & behind the scenes images that invite clients into your world.
Personalised brand photos on your website not only convey the quality of your work but also help establish you as a professional with a successful business. They enable your clients to get to know you far quicker than just a standard headshot photo would.
2. Instagram
Over 1 billion people use Instagram every month. This makes Instagram the second-ranked traditional social network in terms of active users, behind Facebook. 62% of people say they have become more interested in a brand or product after seeing it in Instagram Stories.
It’s not enough to simply share a snap on the ‘Gram & hope to have an impact. To grab the viewer’s attention your posts need to be carefully designed & crafted.
Brand photography is perfect for Instagram. It is personalised. It is authentic & it shows the real you. Instagram is not just about sharing pretty pictures. It’s about communicating & engaging with your followers. Showing photos that offer them an insight into you, your life & your business.
Think of images that show what you do & how. Behind-the-scenes photos that make your viewer feel as if you are letting them into a little secret. All are beautifully styled & tailored to fit your brand colour, tone & ethos.
3. Facebook
Facebook is the most used social platform with nearly 2.45 billion monthly users & 1.62 billion daily visits. That’s a lot of people!
Just think how wonderful it would be to have an online gallery or library of images to dip into every time you posted on Facebook. Informal self-portraits for when you talk about your business plans. Images of you working when you share how you developed your latest product or service. Or a steady stream of product photos, styled & shot, especially for you.
4. Brochures & marketing collateral
The great thing about brand photography is that the images can be used anywhere. It’s about creating a consistent visual identity across all of your business & marketing collateral. From social media to print.
5. Magazine & newspaper articles
When you think about traditional newspaper photography, it’s all about reportage or telling stories.
Your brand photos tell the story of your business & can be used to illustrate press articles about who you are & what you do. Great photos of your business could increase your chances of being published.
6. Blog Posts
When people hear or read information, they remember only 10% of that information three days later. Pair an image with the same information & people retain 65% of the information.
Photos are a great way of breaking up a large body of text & keeping your readers engaged & interested. They also help explain an idea or tell your story. After all, we all know that a picture speaks 1000 words!
7. Email marketing
Our inboxes are FULL of email newsletters. Beautiful branding photos in your newsletter will help your message get noticed. Whilst including high-quality images of you & your team will give your email marketing a more personal & individual feel.
8. Online advertising
The Rule of Seven is an old marketing saying. It says that someone needs to see or hear your marketing message at least seven times before they take action & buy from you.
Brand photography compliments your visual brand through the use of colour, tone & style. Building a recognisable brand by creating a consistent visual identity across all of your business & marketing collateral.
You want people to see a photo & know it’s one of yours.
If you’ve used your branding photos on your website, your social media pages, your blog posts, in magazine articles & in a printed brochure, by the time someone sees them in a retargeted online advert they will be familiar with your visual identity.
And you never know that Facebook advert may be the seventh time they’ve seen your marketing message!
9. Social media profile photos & banner images
It is a good idea to use a headshot-style photo as your profile image. Use your branding images to create personal banner images on Facebook & LinkedIn.
Your profile photo & banner is the first thing people see when they visit your social media page. How can you use these two spaces to communicate your business story to viewers?
10. E-commerce
Traditional product photography is very different to brand photography. Although with the increase in social marketplaces such as Facebook & Instagram & websites like Not on the High Street, the lines between product & brand photography are becoming blurred.
Social marketplaces sell an aspiration that is as much about the lifestyle as it is the product. They encourage sellers to “…have strong images that portray a lifestyle, not just a shot of an object. The pictures should capture the emotion & story of real life.” (NOTHS)
Storytelling photos of your product in use are as important as a simple photo of it. It goes back to engaging with customers. They can’t touch or feel your wares. Use beautiful images to captivate their emotions.
Use your brand photography for e-commerce alongside more conventional product images to create a lifestyle that people will want to buy into & give your business identity & personality.
What are personal branding photos used for?
We’ve looked at the what, the why & the where to find out what personal brand photos are used for.
Now think about how & where your business could use brand photos.
How would bespoke, personalised imagery help you with your marketing & advertising?
Where could you use them? Does your website need updating? Is your Instagram feed full of stock images & your Facebook posts without photos?